Q. Can
you respond to this short
article about the hadith and
female captives of war? I have always found it hard to understand.
Was it normal and expected
that the victors would get the women to have sex and the women were OK with
that even though their husbands and families has just been killed. And there is
no need for a nikah
for sex with a slave?
A.
You're probably aware of the veracity issue
with many ahadith.
Regardless, assuming that the reported hadith
is accurate, we are speaking of a different time here, and as such we see
taking women as prisoners, with whom one can have sex, as the right of the
victor in those times. This is evidenced in the Bible which makes it very clear,
e.g., see Rape in
the Bible.
Only the laws of nations and
modernity, with the protocols of agreement by modern nation states, have erased
this practice. I don't engage in answering those postings except to note that
they are addressing medieval Islamic practice, and assuming that Christian
practice was somehow different. History proves otherwise, and what was done to
the natives, slaves, etc. was done in the name of the very religion that these Islamophobes follow. What matters is that we as Muslims
understand that medieval law ought to remain medieval and that there is no place
for such in today's society.
Posted
April 10, 2016